Torsion oscillators are known, although not widely employed. U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,637 to Martin et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,994 to Byerly et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,956 to Nakagawa et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,956 to Nakagawa et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,767,666 to Asada et al. are illustrative. Problems associated with torsion oscillators include bulk associated with the materials used for the springs, magnets and coils; frequency drift; and instability. In general, these problems and others have prevented or discouraged use of torsion oscillators in applications such as optical systems. Current conventional wisdom provides that torsion oscillators are inferior to rotating mirror devices and are unacceptable for use in scanning devices such as commercial or desktop laser printers.